Back from Spain!

Hi Everyone! We're back from Las Alpujarras, a mountain range in Spain. What lovely unspoiled scenery, here's a sample. We found lots of nooks and crannies and collected all sort of goodies for La Naranja. We're waiting on some deliveries from Spain and doing the final preparations! Lots of great photos to sift through. Busy Busy Busy!

New England, October 2008

From the grounds of the Center for the Arts, Bennington, Vermont

Smart car in Rome

In response to the overwhelming requests (thanks, Bill) for more pics, I must hold you all at bay with the promise that more will be published as soon as I figure out the watermark thingie on photoshop, so I can protect these lil gems o' mine.

This picture is especially for Bill

Bill and I like Smart cars and we have pictures to prove it. We had fun with ours in Spain, but if you are crazy enough to drive in Rome, than by all means, a Smart car is the largest thing you should be driving. You will be very, very happy the first time you attempt to park.

Crossing the Tiber

As we crossed the Tiber into the center of Rome from Trastevere our first night, February 14 2008.

Arrivaderci, Amsterdam!

One of the most wonderful things about living in Amsterdam is the relative ease and speed with which one can be someplace else. Amsterdam's central location makes London, Germany or Brussels reachable by a train ride of reasonable length. Extend your travel mode to include flying and all of Europe is less than three hours away.

We recently flew from Amsterdam to Rome for a four-day break. The round trip airfare was even less than what I had paid last month to fly roundtrip from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia: about three hundred dollars. Our KLM/Allitalia flight to Rome lasted less than two hours.

I am starting to think that these escapes to sun-filled Spain or Italy are necessary if one it to make it through the Dutch winter with one's smile intact.

Ahh! Sunny Rome. We stayed in the low key Trastevere neighborhood, ate dish after dish of exquisite homeade pasta, saw ruins and famous art and religious artifacts until we dropped. The sun shone, the scooters roared, and it seemed that everyone was in a mild argument. After four nights in a city so dense and immense with history, culture, business, tourism and life, I was reminded yet again of how much I love coming home to gentle, small Amsterdam.

Oost West Thuis Best -
Dutch proverb meaning, East, West, at home is best.